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Rabat – The social media team in charge of US President Joe Biden’s Twitter account has deleted its controversial posts that caused online furore over the past 24 hours. The tweet showed Morocco’s map incorrectly, excluding southern provinces in Western Sahara, along with several other glaring errors.
Biden shared a global map yesterday with a caption boasting about US vaccine donations after more than a year of vaccine hoarding. The tweet did not only make disingenuous claims about the US contribution to global vaccine access, it additionally showed a divided map of Morocco, claimed Crimea as Russian and neglected to feature most island nations.
The deleted tweet.
The posts sparked outrage among Moroccans and supporters of Morocco’s territorial integrity, among many others.
Within 15 hours of sharing the tweet, Biden’s social media team deleted the posts including on Facebook and Twitter. The deletion is remarkable, as it is only the fourth ever tweet deleted from the @potus account since Biden’s inauguration. More remarkably, according to data by ProPublica, the other three removed tweets were immediately replaced by slightly reworded tweets.
Disappointing Algeria
Several supporters of the Algerian regime and its Polisario militia had proclaimed that the tweet was an outright declaration that the US would revoke its recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara region.
“Biden Shocks Moroccan Mekhzen (government) And Sides With Algeria,” Algerian news outlet Shihab Presse tweeted, inadvertently highlighting how the Western Sahara is a bilateral issue between Algeria and Morocco. “American president shares a world map that includes (recognizes) Western Sahara,” Algerian channel Echorouk TV tweeted.
“Biden Slaps Morocco and Recognizes Western Sahara,” another user concluded.
Algeria’s state press agency (APS), a key agitator when it comes to the fractured ties between Algeria and Morocco, dedicated an entire article on their homepage to the Biden tweet. “Biden Tweets Map That Separates Western Sahara From Morocco,” its headline proudly stated.
APS stated that the tweet was definitely not an accident, publishing its article on the tweet a few hours before the Biden social media team deleted the message, confirming the errors made in the tweet.
Umpteenth confirmation
The move added to the ever-growing mountain of evidence that reaffirms Biden’s administration is not intending to reverse the US recognition of Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Biden’s administration already made it clear that there is no change in the US position on several occasions. The latest confirmation came from Joey Hood, Acting Assistant Secretary of State last week in Rabat.
When asked about the US position during his visit, Hood echoed the much-emphasized statement “there is no change.” Ned Price, spokesperson of the State Department, made the same statement recently.
In a press conference, Price said that the recognition remains the administration position. “I have no update for you…there is no change,” the official said.
While many supporters of Algeria’s regime saw the map published by the Biden team as confirmation of a reversal of the US Western Sahara decision, previous maps that have shown the opposite apparently carry less weight. The US official map that shows an undivided Morocco has now been used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the CIA, the IMF, NASA, NATO, and in all US State Department literature and publications.
This article was made possible by the significant contributions of Safaa Kasraoui.
